DAY 23 ...THE WIND THAT WASNT

Gaviota
Sun 25 Jan 2009 09:58
35:55.851N 09:19.385W
At 1000 local time (1000 gmt)  distance run in last 24 hours 142 miles
And already be in 15 to 20 knots of wind and it should increase to 30 knots ..... But hang on I m not going anywhere and thats what I had yesterday... I looked at the beautiful blue sky and 6 knots from behind and thought ... that high has done it again .. so by 11.45 was motoring over a fairly calm sea but with an enormous swell .... and so it went on ....and on ... and on ....At least I got my sweater off for an hour at midday AND I got my sealskins (waterproof socs) off for a couple of hours and let them ane feet air out - 1st time off sincw before the Azores!!! Smell was surprisingly ok! ....eventually at 6pm though to there is just enough wind to keep us moving and so got the main up .... and 4 knots YES ... At that time  (about to come dark) and hoping it would increase .. but from where .. decided against poling out the genny, so just pulled out a tiny bit so it would help a little without being big enough to collapse in the wind shadow of the main... And it went dead aft again but did get up to 15 to 20 knots and away we trickled at 5 to 6 knots (quicker than the engine though!).. And steadily it increased so went ploughing on happily through the night at 6 knots +.  Busy night 5 or 6 other ships including a cruise liner that belted past likemanic christmas tree lighting up the night sky! With dawn  got up to 20 to 25 knots, and saw that the barometer has dropped... yesterdays wind today? ... wind shifted slightly so now heading 10 degrees south of Gib ... so wrapped up genny completely and see how it goes ... doing 7 ish knots and even more rolly without the counterbalance effect of the genny..... we`ll leave it like that for now.
We passed 10 degrees a couple of hours ago so now in effect crossing Ireland, just a couple of thousand miles south! and straight after this whizzes over the satellites I shall put the clock forward another hour ... Gibraltar  time!!!